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Religion and Personal Law in Secular India: A Call to Judgment. Edited by GERALD JAMES LARSON. Bloomington: INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2001. Pp. viii + 362.
This volume is the outcome of a conference held at Indiana University in the spring of 1999. Two papers were added, one by Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph (now also available in Religion and Democracy, ed. David Marquant and Ron Nettler, 2000), and one by Rajeev Dhavan (previously published in The Concerned Indian's Guide to Communalism, ed. K. N. Panikkar, 1999). The essays are ranked under four headings: (1) the secular state and legal pluralism: the current debate and its historical antecedents; (2) religious endowments, reservations laws, and criminal law; (3) personal law and issues of gender; and (4) cross-cultural perspectives. They are preceded by an introduction and followed by a bibliographical note by the editor.
The Indian Constitution contains a section (Part IV) called "Directive Principles of State Policy," i.e., fifteen Articles that are not enforceable by any court of law, but for which "it shall be the duty of the State to apply [them] in making laws" (Art. 37). Notwithstanding one of these Articles: "The State shall endeavour to secure for...